The GSS (Graduate Student Society) cIRcle Open Scholar Award is a lottery based award for graduate students at UBC Vancouver which went live on July 9, 2012. The first two awards were presented on October 18, 2012.
For the GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award, graduate students may submit to cIRcle exemplary non-thesis manuscripts or projects that are part of their graduate coursework, with approval from their course instructors.
NOTE: This collection is NOT for UBC Theses and Dissertations which must be submitted in accordance with the requirements of the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FoGS) into the Electronic Theses and Dissertations collection in cIRcle. Please contact FoGS for authorization to submit your thesis or dissertation.
- About the Award
- Who’s eligible?
- How do I submit my work?
- When/How are Awards made?
- For Course Instructors
About the Award
The GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award is a five-year collaboration of the Graduate Student Society and cIRcle/UBC Library. The Award was the brainchild of Francisco Grajales who was, at the time, the GSS Senator. He worked closely with Hilde Colenbrander (cIRcle Coordinator), the GSS Executive and others to implement this Award. The Award was approved by the UBC Vancouver Senate in late 2011, and technical implementation by cIRcle staff was completed in late June 2012.
The GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award is open to graduate students at UBC Vancouver who submit exemplary non-thesis manuscripts or projects that are part of graduate coursework to cIRcle, UBC’s digital repository.
The purpose of the Award is:
- To feature UBC as a leader in the open dissemination of graduate student work
- To create an incentive for graduate students to populate cIRcle with material beyond theses and dissertations
The Award is based on a lottery system held twice a year in April and October. A random selection will be made from items submitted to cIRcle during the previous 6 month period. Four Awards will be made per annum, two in April and two in October.
Each Award is worth $500 and will be awarded to UBC Vancouver graduate students only. If an award winning project has more than one graduate student author, each of these authors will receive an equal proportion of the award money.
"This opportunity is exactly the kind of thing that I hoped for when I started out as a graduate student. It is an opportunity to be recognized by my peers outside of the normal networks. This is an important initiative both for the collegial spirit it promotes and the way it encourages us to collaborate more openly. We look forward to hearing from you!"
- —Conny Lin, GSS President
Who’s eligible?
To be eligible for entry into the Award lottery
- You must be a registered graduate student at UBC Vancouver on July 9th 2012—the launch date of the Award—or later
- You must be a registered graduate student at UBC Vancouver at the time you make your submission to cIRcle
- Your submission must have been made to cIRcle on or after July 9th 2012
- You must have completed an exemplary non-thesis manuscript or project as part of graduate coursework for submission to cIRcle
- You must have obtained the approval of your course instructor to submit your non-thesis manuscript or project to cIRcle
- Your submission must be openly accessible immediately
Students may make multiple submissions each year, subject to course instructor approval. However, any submission will be eligible for the Award only once, during the six-month period that it was submitted to cIRcle and that immediately precedes either the April or October draw.
Eligible non-thesis graduate work from UBC Vancouver submitted to specific disciplinary collections can additionally be mapped into the GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award collection in order to qualify for this Award. Please contact cIRcle staff for details. However, UBC Vancouver graduate students are encouraged to submit their work directly into the GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award collection.
Members of the GSS Executive and Council are eligible for this Award. They have no direct participation in selecting the Award winners.
If an Award winning item has multiple authors, the Award will be split equally among all authors.
Awards will be made only to UBC Vancouver graduate students, not to supervisors or course instructors.
What types of work are eligible for submission?
All projects that are created as part of graduate coursework at UBC Vancouver and are approved for submission to cIRcle by your course instructor may be submitted. For example:
- Essays/papers
- Presentations (including posters)
- Video and audio based projects
How do I submit my work?
UBC Vancouver graduate students upload their own work to cIRcle, subject to course instructor approval, to the following cIRcle collection:
GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award
NOTE: This collection is NOT for UBC Theses and Dissertations which must be submitted in accordance with the requirements of the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FoGS) into the Electronic Theses and Dissertations collection in cIRcle. Please contact FoGS for authorization to submit your thesis or dissertation.
To submit your work to the GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award collection, please follow these steps:
- Discuss the terms of the Award with your course instructor and obtain her/his approval to upload your non-thesis manuscript or project to cIRcle. Tell your course instructor that they will receive an automated email from cIRcle requesting their approval after you have uploaded your project.
- Please ensure that your file name follows cIRcle File Naming Conventions. PDF format is preferred for documents but cIRcle staff can convert files to PDF on your behalf if needed.
- Register for a cIRcle login, if you don’t have one yet: https://circle.ubc.ca/register
After registering, you can link your cIRcle login to your CWL, and use your CWL to login to cIRcle thereafter. Please follow the instructions for Linking your CWL and your cIRcle login on the login screen: https://circle.ubc.ca/login - After logging in to cIRcle, click on ‘Submissions’ (under ‘My Account’) in the left hand column of your screen. Then click on ‘start a new submission’ and select the ‘GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award’ collection.
- Follow instructions on the next screens carefully as you describe and upload your submission.
- On the final screen you will be asked to agree to the cIRcle license (note that if you are submitting a group project you should seek approval from your co-authors in advance of your agreeing to the license on behalf of the group).
- You will also be asked to confirm that you meet the Award eligibility criteria. Then click on ‘Complete Submission’ and your submission will be routed to your course instructor for approval. Your submission will be added to the cIRcle database after your course instructor completes the electronic approval process, and after library staff verify your descriptive data.
- Please note that you may receive an automated email indicating that revisions to your submission are required. It is important that you respond to such emails to complete the submission process.
- When your submission is added to the cIRcle database, you will receive a confirmation email with the link to your project.
What types of material can I submit?
All projects that are created as part of graduate coursework at UBC Vancouver and are approved for submission to cIRcle by your course instructor may be submitted. For example:
- Essays/papers
- Presentations (including posters)
- Video and audio based projects
Other questions?
If you have additional questions about submitting your work to cIRcle, please take a look at our FAQs.
When/How are Awards made?
Four Awards will be made each year for the next 5 years, two in April and two in October. Selections will be made based on a lottery system. Recommendations are made by the UBC cIRcle office in consultation with the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FoGS).
The Graduate Student Society presents the Awards to the winners.
The first two Awards are to be made in October 2012.
Awards timeline
On October 1st and on April 1st (or the first business day thereafter): cIRcle staff generate an online listing of all items uploaded to, or mapped into, the GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award collection during the preceding 6 months:
- On October 1st, for the period April 1st to September 30th
- On April 1st, for the period October 1st to March 31st
Representatives from the GSS, from cIRcle, and from FoGS will meet to select the two submissions that will win the Award. Either the cIRcle or the FoGS representative performs the randomized selection, with the GSS representative observing.
Note: Selection of Award winners is entirely random.
Awards presentation ceremony
The GSS announces the Award winners before the end of October or April, as the case may be, and organizes the official presentation of the Awards.
For Course Instructors
The GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award collection in cIRcle is for exemplary non-thesis graduate student work at UBC Vancouver. All work destined for this collection must be approved by the students' course instructors. Only submissions of exemplary quality should be approved.
